The LV-426 Incident
by K2JC
Summary: 17 weeks ago, USS Sulaco was reported destroyed. Yet it's on the other side of that door, orbiting around LV-426. All attempts in communication was met with silence. Seeing no other choice, the USS Sephora sends in her Marines to investigate. But nothing prepared them for the horrors that lurks inside the Sulaco.
1. The LV-426 Incident Ch 1

**_Everything's the same except rather than a First Contact... nothing happened. Takes place in the Alien Universe. Citadel species are still influenced by Protheans but humanity never discovered any Prothean Archives. The Charon relay was discovered accidentally and activated in 2149 but was shut down along with the other relays they would discovered later. The reason was because the researchers wondered why the relays were deactivated in the first place and the possibility of hostiles using the relay. Weighting the risks, they decided on the deactivation of all relays. Besides, they already had the means for space travel. The only the last relay tone deactivated was 314 but the Turians reported it's activation and deactivation to the Citadel. Rather than risk it, they left it alone but had a Turian fleet guard the relay. It's a shitty reason, really. I just really wanted to use ME humans as characters in Aliens: Colonial Marines. That's it._**

1/14/2179

LCpl. Jane Shepard

United States Colonial Marines, 118th Battalion

Cryo Bay, USS Sephora

"Rise and Shine, Marines. This isn't a drill and you aren't in Kansas anymore."

Jane Shepard groaned as she sat up. Garbed in a simple olive-drab green shirt and PT shorts, Shepard hopped off the hypersleep chamber and stood in attention, as did the other newly awakened Marines. Among them was her friend Christopher Winter.

"On your feet, Marines." Captain Jeremy Cruz paced in front of the assembled Marines, eyeing them critically while Bishop stood emotionless as ever "For any new recruits, I'm Captain Cruz and you're my crew on the USS Sephora. We responded to a distress call sent out seventeen weeks ago from the USS Sulaco. Rhino 2-3 went in first and encountered heavy resistance. You are the last of the battalion to get popped out of cryo. So I don't wanna hear any bitchin' because we let you lugheads sleep in late. Get combat ready and I'll see you in the hangar in twenty mikes."

Without another word, the Captain turned to leave and left Bishop to inspect the Marines' condition. Winter was up first and the Synthetic flashed a light on the Marine's eyes.

"Name and rank?"

"Corporal Christopher Winter, 118th Battalion aboard the USS Sephora."

Bishop hummed before moving on to her "Name and rank?"

"Lance Corporal Jane Shepard, 118th Battalion aboard the USS Sephora." Another hum of approval and the Synthetic moved on to the next Marine. Winter and Shepard made their way to their lockers in the armory and prepared their gear.

Winter wore the standard Marine BDUs under an M3 Pattern Personal Armor with a wolf's head painted on the center and the words 'Big Bad' written on the top and 'Wolf' on the bottom of the head respectively. TNR Shoulder Lamp attached to the rear left shoulder bracket. Gloves, elbow pads and a wristwatch. Shepard grabbed an M10 Ballistic Helmet with military goggles and whistled at Winter. Said Marine holstered a 88 Mod 4 Combat Pistol and looked up just in time to catch the helmet. Nodding his thanks, Winter secured his boots and moved to the weapons rack.

Private James Vega held up a black M41A Pulse Rifle Mk.2 with red accents and a skull and sickle decals with an S6 Reflex Sight attachment. He also grabbed an M314 Motion Tracker and six M40 HEPDs for the U1 Underbarrel Grenade Launcher. The bulky Marine nodded at Winter and handed him his weapons and equipment.

"Packed it with the 60-round mags and got you the Reflex Sight. Just like you want it, brother. Got you about six M40s for the grenade launcher, too."

"Thanks, man." The two fist bumped before looking at Shepard.

Jane wore her olive-drab shirt under an M56 Combat Harness with a picture of a smiley face on the center and the words 'Have a Nice Day' written below it. She wore standard BDU pants, a wristband on her right and a watch on the other. Shepard grabbed an olive-drab cap, with the USCM emblem on the front, from her locker and a Head Mounted Sight. After finishing up with her boots, she moved to the table where Vega was setting down the Pulse Rifles and the Latin American Marine placed her weapon of choice to another table. An M56 Smartgun with the phrase 'Say Cheese!' written on the side. It was also attached to it's articulator arm. Vega grabbed an M4A3 with an underslung Laser Sight and three M40 HEDP grenades before setting them down beside the Smartgun.

"Alright, Lola. Got your Sunday Special here. Remember, you only got 500 rounds for this puppy. Try not to waste it all, bueno? You do that then your stuck with a sidearm."

"I make no promises, dude." Shepard replied as she pulled back the charging handle of the Smartgun "Oh baby~"

As the rest of the Marines got ready, Captain Cruz called for her and Winter "Winter, Shepard. I'm sending in Rhino 2-1 to reinforce 2-3. How you two feelin'?"

"Feeling fine, Captain. But I'm worried about 2-3."

"Lean, Green and very, very Mean, sir."

"Good. Because I'm sending you two to catch up with 2-1." Cruz approved with a nod "2-3's mission was to recover Sulaco's flight recorder to find out what caused this."

"Sir, what happened in there?" Winter asked only for the Captain to shake his head.

"We shit the bed." Cruz replied solemnly before hopping up to one of the Power Loaders beside Lieutenant Lisa Reid who stood in parade rest, though she did give Winter a small nod who returned it.

"Attention chicks and dicks of the USS Sephora! Rhino 2-3 ran into a shitstorm aboard the USS Sulaco. Now we gotta pull them outta the fire. We don't leave Marines behind. Over the next two hours, we're gonna send dropships over to aid with casevac. But that's not all. 2-3 said that they were under attack by unknown and very dangerous life forms. So here's what you're gonna do. First: If it moves, kill it. If it's not moving, kill it again. Second: You each got more firepower than an Army platoon so use it. All of it. Third: You don't die unless I give you a direct order. Reports say that Sulaco was last seen over Fury-161. Frankly, I don't give a flying fuck on how that boat got back here. What I wanna know is what the hell's been killin' our Marines. So ready up and show them who's the baddest motherfuckers in the galaxy. Oorah to ashes!"

"OORAH!"

The rest of the platoon quickly ran to make last minute checkups. Reid went back to her dropship and was the first one off the Sephora. Winter and Shepard, however, followed the Captain as they made their way to the umbilical.

"Listen up. What I need right now is information. No heroics. No bullshit." The Captained began "I need you two to be my eyes in there. Report back anything you see so we'll know what we're up against."

"Roger that." Winter replied with a nod "Tell Rhino 2-1 that we are en route to their location."

"Good. Now get to it, grunts."

~Line Break~

"What do you thinks been killing our boys?"

"I don't know, Shepard. We'll find out when we get there."

That didn't ease Shepard's nerves one bit. It also didn't help that something in the Sulaco just exploded and sent the two of them on their backs as the umbilical violently shook. Jane looked up and saw the body of one of their Marines crash into the top of the umbilical, leaving a web-like crack on the glass. Winter stood up and helped her up her feet before the Captain's voice sounded through their comms.

'Winter, Shepard. What the hell just happened in there!? Raider 6-5, get me eyes on the umbilical.'

"Explosive decompression on the Sulaco." Winter replied before Reid's dropship hovered outside of the umbilical and flashed it's light on the structure.

'This is Raider 6-5, the umbilical is venting atmo into the black. Looks dicey, sir.'

Winter looked to his left as cracks began to form on the umbilical's glass. That wasn't a good sign.

'Dicey? Reid, I need grownup words.'

'You have twenty minutes before a total collapse, shut it down.' Reid droned out.

'You two heard the lady. Get to the other side and we're shutting it down.'

"Understood, sir. Continuing on to the Sulaco, out."

Jane moved past him and took point. She was not dying in there. Nope. No way in hell. They reached the door and quickly went inside, noticing the lights flickering around them. Once they entered Sulaco, they were met with the sight of a wrecked room and two Marines trying to recover a couple of downed ones.

"Sephora Actual, this is O'Neal." A tattooed Smartgunner wearing a blue bandana called through his comms as he lifted debris off a pinned Marine "We've got casualties and several injured over here. I need a corpsman right away for the downed Marines on Rhino 2-1."

'Negative, 2-1. That explosion jacked the airlock on our end. We cannot use the umbilical without risking more lives. Sit tight and stabilize our Marines.'

"O'Neal." Winter called out "What's the status of 2-3?"

"Winter?" O'Neal asked, just recognizing the Corporal "Looks like the Captain sent you over in this shit as well. You too, Shepard. Someone pull out their motion tracker and find 2-3."

"I got it." Winter stood up and pulled up his motion tracker "Got our guys here. And I'm reading 2-3 to the south, beyond the hangar, engineering perhaps."

"They movin'?"

"Negative. Wait- "Winter narrowed his eyes as the motion tracker let out a ping "I got movement. They ain't ours."

"Damn it." O'Neal cursed when he felt no vitals left from the Marine before standing up "Sephora Actual, sounds like 2-3's holding position."

"Or they're down." Shepard added as she kept her Smartgun aimed at the door.

"We're reading unidentified movement in their area, they could be under attack." O'Neal continued before running a bypass on the hangar's door. Shepard, Smartgun ready, was the first one in and was followed by Winter.

"Dammit." The two turned around to see O'Neal rush towards a wounded Marine that went into shock "You two go ahead without us. We'll try and keep them stable."

"Got it. Stay safe, man." Winter replied before calling the Captain "Sephora Actual, we're going in to rendezvous with with Rhino 2-3."

'Remember what I said about heroics, you two. Actual, out.'

"Hey, Winter." The Corporal looked to Shepard and saw her looking over the lower half of a Synthetic. The Smartgunner gave the pair of legs a gentle kick before snorting "Think the other half's still here?"

"Doubt it." Winter huffed "Sir, there's half of an unidentified synthetic splattered across the deck." Winter never thought he'd say that sentence in his life.

'Which half?'

"Well, he ain't saying much."

'Then find me a half that does. Actual, out.'

~Line Break~

"Ugh, the fuck is this stuff?"

"Actual, are you seeing this?"

There was no reply from the other end so the two moved further down the small set of stairs in Engineering. Black webbing was all over the place, covering almost everything but a few parts of the floor and walls. Winter spotted an oversized egg with the top open. Beside it was a giant, spiderlike thing with a long tail. The Corporal noticed a set of boots on the wall and looked up to see one of Rhino 2-3 stuck on the wall by the webbing.

"Garnett? Jesus, no."

Garnett's lifeless eyes stared at nothing as Winter's own made their way to the giant, bloody hole on the Marine's chest. Taking out his Motion Tracker, Winter quickly scanned the room for any movement while Jane cautiously eyed the room. Hovering her thumb over the 'Fire' button on the Smartgun.

"Shepard, secure the door. I'm gonna take a look and see if anyone's still alive."

"Stay frosty, man."

Winter watched Farron make her way back to the door before traversing further through Engineering. The Corporal passed by more eggs and...

"A camera?"

He looked to behind him and saw another member of Rhino 2-3 suspended on the wall by the webbing. He too had a hole in his chest. Winter assumed that was the cause of death of these men and couldn't help but wince at the agony those boys must've felt before... something exploded from their chests.

"W-Where am I?"

Winter quickly turned to the voice and saw Keyes shaking his head as he tried to break free from the webbing "Winter? Oh, thank God. Get me the hell outta here."

"On it."

Winter began to cut parts of the webbing with his ME3 Hand Welder. Before he could make any progress, a black skeletal hand grabbed his forearm. The Marine looked to the source of the appendage and recoiled as a ridged skull of a 'something' hissed at him. It pushed him off, forcing Winter on his back, before dropping on all fours. It hissed once more before lunging at him.

"Shoot that thing!"

Winter grunted as he tried to keep the thing at bay before using his legs to kick it off. Before it could recover, a barrage of 10x28 mm Caseless Rounds tore the thing into pieces. Winter looked up to see Shepard glaring at the dead thing even as she stopped firing. Nodding his thanks, Winter retrieved his Pulse Rifle before running back to cut Keyes down.

"Sephora Actual, this is Winter. We've located Keyes from Rhino 2-3. There's some bodies down here but some are missing. There are one or two Marines missing from 2-3."

"They're all dead? Garnett?" Keyes asked before fell to his knees on the floor but Winter knelt down and tried to help the Marine up while Shepard scanned the area for anymore of those 'things'.

"He's gone. Hang on. I got ya, buddy."

"Guess we know what happened to 2-3." Shepard commented "But how the hell did a section of the Sulaco blew up?"

She got no answer as the Captain's voice sounded through their comms 'Winter, regroup what's left and get back to the hangar with he rest of 2-1. Do not engage.'

"No fucking way." Keyes muttered before radioing Actual "This is Keyes from 2-3, sir. Our mission was to get flight data from the Sulaco."

'Son, I gave you that mission and now it's over.'

"We have to know what caused this! The flight recorder can get us that. Sir, with all due respect- "

'With all due respect means you shut your goddamn mouth and follow orders! Actual, out.'

The line cut and the Captain's booked no room for argument but Keyes wasn't having any of that. Taking the M37A2 Shotgun on the floor, Keyes disregarded the Captain's orders and moved to get the flight recorder. Shepard glared at the back of his head and demands "What the fuck do you think you're doing, Keyes?"

"To hell with orders." Keyes replied. Not slowing down as he made his way towards a door "The flight recorder isn't too far from here. We grab it then link up with 2-3. O'Neal, you still there?"

'Yeah, we're here. Me and Paluski are the only ones left. Something dragged them through the vents. We're holding position in the Dropship Bay. You guys headin' back?'

"No. You gotta buy us ten minutes to get flight-rec back. Our Marines didn't die for nothing."

'You got five then you get your asses back here. Keyes, keep an eye out for Bella.'

"Oorah to ashes."

Keyes finished bypassing the door and walked in. Winter looked to Shepard and shrugged before following after Rhino 2-3. The Smartgunner sighed before following after the two. Did they really just disobeyed a direct order from the Captain when he specifically told them 'No heroics. No bullshit'? Fuck it. Where was a cigarette when you need one?

~Line Break~

"Keyes, open the door!"

"I'm on it. I'm on it!"

Jane grit her teeth as the 'bugs', as she liked to call them, continued to run down the corridor towards them. She and Winter held them off while Keyes ran a bypass on the Dropship Bay door. They got the flight-rec but encountered a lot of bugs on the way back. The bugs were slippery and very, very sneaky. If they weren't attacking the trio, they were either hiding in the shadows or in the vents. Shepard cursed when she realized she had about 250 rounds left and it was going down fast.

"It's open!"

The two quickly left the corridor and made their way to the hangar. They didn't wait for the door to rise fully-up and went under it. Farron swore that if they lived through this, she was gonna kill Keyes. The reason? The Jarhead saw the bugs on top of the dropship 'Smartass' and had the brilliant idea of throwing a grenade at it.

"There up the dropship! Watch this."

"Keyes, wait!"

Winter tried to stop him but the Marine had already threw the grenade underneath the dropship's cockpit. The grenade hit the floor and exploded, sending the three of them on their backs. Winter didn't waste time and grabbed Keyes by the straps of his armor.

"Are you out of you're goddamn mind!? Get to the fucking umbilical!"

He pushed the Marine towards Rhino 2-1, who were taking shots at the bugs from across the hangar. Winter picked up his Pulse Rifle from the ground and followed after Keyes. Jane would've followed them but heard a hiss above her and saw one of the bugs crawling up the hangar's wall.

"Oh, shit!"

Raising the Smartgun high, she fired while backpedaling as the bug jumped down at her. Even as she killed it, more seem to pop out of nowhere. She was running real low on rounds and there was no end to the goddamn bugs. After killing one more bug, Shepard turned around and ran towards 2-1. She quickly set up behind the barricade, adjacent to O'Neal. The two of them, along with Winter and Paluski, held off the bugs while Keyes ran a bypass on the hangar's door that led to the umbilical.

"If I die here I swear to God, I will fucking kill you, Keyes!" O'Neal yelled through the gunfire.

"Get in fucking line, O'Neal." Shepard yelled back before her Smartgun ran out of rounds "Motherfucker."

She discarded the weapon and detached the articulator arm before switching to her sidearm but a bug jumped on top of her. She held it by the side of it's mouth, keeping it at bay as the thing tried to take a bite out of her with it's inner jaw. Luckily for her, Winter kicked the bug off and killed it before she was helped up by O'Neal and Paluski.

"Got it! We're bugging out. We're Oscar Mike!" Keyes yelled before running inside. The rest of the Marines didn't need to be told twice and quickly made their way to the umbilical. They shut the hangar doors behind them before waiting for the outer door to open. Once it did, Keyes was the first one to go. Followed by Winter, O'Neal, Paluski and Farron.

They were halfway in the umbilical when Keyes screamed in pain and fell to his knees.

"Keyes!" Winter knelt down and tried to help him up but the Marine pushed him away.

"Get... away... from me."

Winter's eyes widened when he saw the grenade in Keyes hands. He scrambled back as Keyes screamed in agony and something burst out of his chest, making the Marine detonate the grenade in his hand and taking the middle part of the umbilical with the following explosion. Winter managed to grab on to the umbilical while Paluski was struck by a debris and fell to the black. O'Neal stayed next to the open door while Shepard managed to hold on to one of the cords hanging from the ceiling, hoping to God she would not get sucked into space or have the cord she was holding fry her up. Winter grunted as he struggled to climb up the side of the umbilical but he was almost to the door. O'Neal saw this and held out his hand.

"Winter, reach!"

The Corporal took a breath before leaping, holding out his hand and caught O'Neal's forearm before the Smartgunner flung him back inside and shut the airlock. Winter tried to catch his breath as he realized how close they were from getting sucked into the black but it caught up to his mind to what just happened with Keyes.

"We lost the flight-rec." Winter said between deep breaths "Keyes, he had the flight-rec with him. It was all for nothin'." He slammed his fist on the wall in frustration "Damn it!"

"Well. We're not dead so, y'know, there's that." O'Neal replied before getting up to his feet. Shepard breathed a sigh of relief as she let go of the cord and landed on her back. She didn't care if her arms were sore as fuck from holding onto that cord for dear life. She'd take that pain over getting sucked into the black any day. Unfortunately, there were only three of them against a seemingly endless number of bugs until the rest of the Marines get there. Their chances doesn't look good.

"We're so fucked, aren't we?"

"Maybe." Winter replied before picking up his Pulse Rifle. It's amazing how the thing managed to survive that whole ordeal. He then picked up two more Pulse Rifles on the ground and handed it to O'Neal and Shepard "But we can't die unless the Captain gave us a direct order, right?"

"Heh." Jane huffed and checked the bullet counter before racking the charging handle "Yeah and I've had my fill of insubordination for one day."

'Sephora Actual to 2-1, can you read me? What the hell just happened to the umbilical?'

"Keyes happened, sir." Jane replied "We were almost to the Sephora when... something exploded out of his chest. Keyes was holding a fucking grenade and blew himself up. He took the flight-rec with him. We lost Paluski too."

'Goddamnit. What the hell is happening in there? Doesn't matter. All of our Cheyenne-class birds are en route to provide casevac and ground support. That's almost eighty Marines en route and you gotta get them somewhere to land. The hangar's out of commission but we got room on the Cargo Bays.'

"Understood, sir. We're heading for the Cargo Bay now." Shepard replied before turning to the other two "You guys know any way we can get to the Cargo Bay without going through the hangar?"

"Yeah, I got one. Winter, help me with this." O'Neal answered with a nod before he and Winter moved to open the hatch on the floor. Shepard saw this and aimed her Pulse Rifle at the opening. Just in case any of the bugs decided to pop up

"Follow me."

O'Neal jumped in first and Winter followed shortly. Jane looked over her shoulder at the hangar door before jumping down as well. No way in hell was she gonna end up like Keyes. Nope. She was not dying here. Not today.

~Line Break~

It wasn't long before they found a room that took then by surprise. It was a small room and they had to pass through it to reach the Cargo Bay. Computers were set up inside. Weyland-Yutani computers. The Sulaco was a USCM ship. So what was Wey-Yu tech doing in there?

"Sephora Actual, we're sending back a live feed. This isn't Colonial Marine tech. It's got Wey-Yu markings, sir."

"Holy shit."

Shepard stopped looking at the x-rays hanging on the walls and turned to O'Neal, who was checking something on one of the laptops "What is it?"

"Everything's time-stamped since we received that distress call from, uh, what's his name?"

"Some Marine from Sulaco. Corporal Hicks." Shepard replied before looking out the window. She spotted the room across it was covered in black webbing as well. There were also cameras there too "The fuck was Wey-Yu doing here?"

"Sephora Actual, what do you make of this?" Winter asked through the comms "Sir, is there someone else on this ship?"

'I have Bishop sending a signal to Wey-Yu. We ain't got time to play Sherlock. The three of you get to the Cargo Bay. Actual, out.'

"God, we are so screwed." O'Neal sighed out before leaving the room. Shepard took off her cap and ran a hand through her red hair before following after O'Neal. Winter watched them go and looked at the room one more time before leaving as well. The Captain was right. They'll figure it out later once they got their Marines on board. Although, the Corporal wondered if having any more of their Marines inside Sulaco was a good idea. The ship looked like it doesn't have any more of their people to provide casevac.

'Sephora Actual, this is Bella. Do you read?'

"Bella." O'Neal muttered before stopping in his tracks to listen in. Winter stopped as well before looking around the room. They've gone through two rooms now and the rooms were still covered in webbing. How long had the bugs been here? How long had Wey-Yu been here?

"Winter." Said Marine looked to Shepard and saw the redhead pointing her Pulse Rifle at the set of eggs in front of a webbed Marine. The eggs had already hatched and the Marine on the wall had a hole in his chest. Just like Garnett. Winter saw the same spiderlike creature on the floor. Dead.

"Think those bugs came from these eggs?" Winter asked as Shepard picked the dead spider thing with the end of her Pulse Rifle. Sneering in disgust, Jane threw it away. Unfortunately, the dead spider thing struck the dome of a bug that was lying in wait. It hissed and jumped out of the shadows. The bug knocked Jane away with it's tail before pouncing on Winter. The Corporal kept the bug at bay with his hands before reaching for the Combat Pistol.

"Come on." Winter gritted out before finally getting a hold of the pistol and pulling it out of the holster. He jammed the gun to the side of the bug's head and fired. A spray of green, acidic blood came out from the other side before the bug went limp. Winter kicked the dead bug off before retrieving his Pulse Rifle. He looked to his squadmates and saw O'Neal was busy shooting at two bugs on the ceiling while Shepard was slowly getting to her feet.

"Fuck. That hurt." Shepard cursed before grabbing her weapon from the ground and shaking the dizziness away. She looked to where O'Neal was shooting at and saw the bugs crawling on the walls. Taking aim, Shepard fired the Pulse Rifle and managed to hit a bug on the leg. The bug fell unceremoniously on the ground before being riddled by 10mm Caseless rounds. Once the bug was dead, she turned towards the other two Marines "We gotta head to the Cargo Bay now before more bugs show up!"

"Follow me!" O'Neal yelled before running to the door. The trio left the webbed rooms and entered the Gravity Well room. Shepard looked around and noticed the walls were webbed too. She narrowed her eyes and saw the shadows casted by the bugs from the Grav Well's lights. Jesus, how many bugs are there?

"We need to reach the top of the Gravity Well. That'll put us right next to the Cargo Bay."

"Hostiles on the railings!" Winter warned as he opened fire on the bugs climbing up the railings from the catwalk. O'Neal took point and fired at the bugs on the walls. Shepard covered their backs and fired a grenade that blew off a bug's legs and threw the rest of it's body over the railing. They reached a door on the end of the catwalk and quickly entered. Once inside, Winter began welding the door shut. That'll keep the bugs back for a bit. Sighing, the Corporal stood up and followed after two. They reached the Grav Well's control room and O'Neal stopped before holding up a fist.

"You guys hear that?"

Winter stopped and listened before looking up to one of the vents. Something was banging in it. He aimed his Pulse Rifle and the other two mirrored his action. The vent's grating fell broke and a body of a dead Marine fell down, followed by a bug who was soon torn apart by three Pulse Rifles. Shepard walked closer to the dead bug and saw it's blood the floor beside it. She knelt down and took the Marine's tags before looking at the name printed on the front of the armor.

"O'Brien. Oorah to ashes, man." Jane muttered before picking up two Pulse Rifle mags for her before passing the other three to Winter and O'Neal.

"Come on, our exit should be the next floor up. Oorah to ashes." O'Neal muttered as he looked down at the body before taking point. Shepard rose from the ground and followed after him. Winter stayed behind and knelt down. He sighed and closed the Marine's eye before patting his shoulder.

"Peace, brother. Oorah to ashes."

Winter stood up and moved to follow after his squadmates. They encountered a few bugs on the way to the next floor and Winter stumbled onto an custom Ithaca 37 with a wooden pump and bandaged pistol grip inside one of the rooms. The gun was sheathed in a tactical scabbard and was lying on the floor. The Corporal picked it up and unsheathed the gun before inspecting it, noting the 'NO FATE' carved on top of the weapon and the name 'REESE' printed on the side. Winter sighed when he saw a discarded helmet, with the name 'Sarah' written beside a heart, lying on a pool of blood beside it.

Something dripped on Winter's hand and he looked up just in time to see a bug lunging at him. The bug pinned him down but he kept it at bay with he shotgun. Shepard heard the commotion and entered the room. She saw the bug pinning Winter to the ground and aimed her Pulse Rifle but she couldn't fire without risking getting Winter sprayed with acidic blood. The bug tried to use it's inner jaw to kill him but Winter growled and smacked the bug with the shotgun before firing. The bug was thrown back a few feet as Winter catches his breath. How many times was he gonna get pounced like that? Cause that was not fun. Shepard walked over to him and helped him up.

"Goddamn, Winter. You're a badass, man." Jane complimented before nudging the dead bug with her boot. Winter just nodded before placing the shotgun into it's scabbard and taking it with him, just in case if he had anymore 'Close Encounters'.

"Come on, Shepard. Let's get outta here."

~Line Break~

"We make it to the control room, pop the doors open and blow this shit out the black!"

"Uh, what'd you say? I can't hear you from the sound of how much I'm kicking bug ass right now!"

"You gotta run this stuff by me before you speak in crazy, O'Neal!"

The three had reached the Cargo Bay and were making their way to the control room via catwalk. Unfortunately, a lot of bugs were coming out of the walls and vents. They were being swarmed and it was just their luck that the doors to the control room were locked. O'Neal moved to bypass the door while Winter and Shepard provided covering fire. Easier said than done when you have to keep an eye on the ceiling, walls and railings for the bugs that seemed to just pop out of nowhere.

Shepard grit her teeth as she emptied the last of her mags. Switching to her pistol, she slowly backpedaled to the door. Luckily, O'Neal was already trying to open the second door "O'Neal, get that fucking door open now!"

"I'm working on it!"

Winter kicked a bug away before unloading a shell on the thing's head, blowing it's brains out. He reloaded the gun, not realizing that the door to the control room was open and he was the only one they were waiting for.

"Winter, move!"

Winter dropped one more bug before entering the control room. He shut the door and locked it before moving to the console. He looked for the Cargo Bay door controls but jumped when the bugs tried smashing their heads on the viewport to break the glass. The cracks formed on their fourth try showed that they'll eventually succeed. Finally, he found the door controls and activated it without a second thought.

'This is Raider 6-5, I got Sephora Actual in tow. Coming in for a landing, Winter. Copy.'

"Understood, Raider. Cargo doors are triggered to close automatically so hurry up, Reid!"

'Well, shit in my breakfast... Everybody hang onto something!'

The trio of Marines watched as the Cargo Bay doors fully opened and sucked out the cargo, and bugs, out into the black. Raider 6-5 then entered the Cargo Bay and made a rather messy landing. Well, considering their situation. It was better than nothing. When the dropship came to a halt, the Cargo doors shut. Leaving the bugs to the mercy of the darkness of space.

'Be advised, Actual, that Winter made me scratch my favorite ship, sir.'

Winter smiled and shook his head before looking at Raider 6-5's cockpit "It's your only ship, Reid!"

From the cockpit, Reid smiled back and raised her middle finger at Winter who returned the gesture in kind. O'Neal chuckled and patted Winter on the back.

"Can't believe we made it through that shit, boyscout."

"We're not out of the woods yet, O'Neal." Jane replied. Taking a seat on top of the console before taking off her cap and running a hand through her hair "But you're right. We went through some crazyass shit and lived through it. Like a squad of ultimate badasses, dude."

"Let's not jinx it, alright? I need a fucking breather after all that." Winter sighed out as he watched the first squad of Marines disembark and secured a perimeter.

~Line Break~

"All teams in position?"

"Affirmative, Alpha. Bravo, out."

"This is Charlie, waiting on you."

"Remember, no survivors. Weapons hot."

The squad leader nodded in satisfaction before holding up a detonator. Around him, at least a dozen other white armored soldiers had their weapons aimed at the door where a breaching charge was placed in the center. Equipped with NSG 23 Assault Rifles, M39 SMGs and one M56 Smartgun.

"Breaching in 3... 2... 1."


	2. The LV-426 Incident Ch 2

The trio's breather was short lived as the door from the far side of the control room burst open. They quickly grabbed their weapons and took positions behind any cover they could find while aiming their guns at the door. Smoke from the blast concealed whoever blew open the door from their sights. They then felt the whole ship shake and nearly threw them off their feet.

Outside, the doors on the catwalks opened and soldiers in white armor began pouring out and started shooting up the dropship. Jane growled and turned to the destroyed door as the smoke began to slowly clear.

"Hey!" The redhead yelled "Identify yourselves or we will fire!"

Jane barely managed to duck back into cover when a heavily armored soldier walked in and opened fire with a Smartgun. Behind him, three more soldiers came in and took cover behind the consoles and opened fire on them as well. Shepard growled before holding her middle finger out of cover.

"Go fuck yourselves then!" The redhead yelled before returning fire. Winter and O'Neal saw this and did so as well. Concentrating fire on the Smartgunner, Winter fired a round from the Pulse Rifle's grenade launcher and blew off the soldier's legs.

'Somebody better tell me what the hell just happened out there! Who else is on this goddamn ship with us!?' The Captain's voice boomed from their comms.

'We have no controls of the Sulaco's weapon systems, sir.' Bishop's calm voice chimed in.

'We have hostiles firing on us! This is Raider 6-5, returning fire!'

'Remember the rules of engagement. Those are humans down there! Do not fire unless fired upon.'

'They're fucking shooting at us sir!' Reid retorted.

Winter stared at the viewport and saw Raider 6-5's nose-mounted rotary cannon return fire and literally tear apart the soldiers attacking the dropship. The squad of Marines that disembarked Raider 6-5 ran up the stairs to the catwalk and quickly made their way to the control room. Winter's eyes widened as the rotary cannon struck the viewport and broke the glass, causing the blast shields to close.

"So much for front row seats." He muttered before spotting the Marine squad enter the control room. Winter looked over his cover and saw their attackers were dead. Shepard walked over to one of the bodies and kicked it to it's side.

"Wey-Yu PMCs. What the fuck."

Shepard kicked the body hard in frustration. First, Sulaco comes back after it was reportedly destroyed after 17 weeks. Then the bugs, then the Wey-Yu tech, then the dead Sulaco Marines, and now fucking PMCs! The fuck was going on in this godforsaken ship!?

'Rhino 2-1, can you get to the bridge and shut down the Sulaco's weapon systems?'

"Sir, how in the hell- " O'Neal began but was cutoff.

'O'Neal, if you don't get moving, every Marine on both ships will die! Ignore that it sounded like a question and move your asses, grunts!'

"Understood, sir."

It was Winter that replied this time and he quickly ran out the door the PMCs came through. Unfortunately, he was met by more PMCs who fired their weapons at the sight of him and dove to cover. Shepard and O'Neal flanked him and the three of them blindfired at the PMCs across the room. The Marine squad, which consisted of two Riflemen, a Flamethrower and a Smartgunner, joined them and opened fire on the Wey-Yu grunts.

The one wielding the flamethrower, a woman, took cover beside Shepard. She has a cigarette between her lips before taking it out and placed it between her ear. She was wearing the standard Marine Multi-cam BDUs and combat armor. An M10 Ballistic Helmet with the words 'God In Heaven' written on the side. Her M3 Pattern Personal Armor had a stylized rosary painted below her name while the words 'Off Limits!' were written on the crotch piece of her armor.

"Fresh out of cryo and we're already knee deep in shit. Corporal Ashley Williams, nice to meet ya. Heard a lot of crazy shit about this place back in the ship."

"Williams? Transferred to the Sephora, right?" Winter asked to which Ashley nodded.

"Yup. First deployment."

"As much as I like to get to know you and your squad better, Williams, we gotta get to the bridge and shut down Sulaco's weapons. I rather not die to these asshats and have them blow up the Sephora."

After that, Jane rolled out of cover and ran to the side to flank the PMCs. Unfortunately, there was someone waiting for her and tackled her to the floor. Growling in frustration, she kneed his groin and rolled him to his back to straddle him. She took off his helmet and sent punch after punch after punch before finally stopping. Shepard rose from the ground and took out her pistol, aiming right between the PMC's eyes.

"That's the closest you're gonna get to me riding you. Hope it was worth it, jackass."

Without another word, Shepard pulled the trigger. She retrieved her gun and flanked the PMCs, throwing a grenade by their feet before opening fire. Across from her, Winter pulled out the Ithaca 37 and attacked the PMCs while they were busy firing at Shepard and William's squad. He blew the back of a Wey-Yu grunt's back away before taking out the other one adjacent to him. Seeing that they were being overrun, the Wey-Yu grunts decided to bug out but this only made them bigger targets for William's squad.

"Alright, let's not waste anymore time and get to the bridge. Move it out, Marines." Winter commanded before taking point. Shepard, O'Neal, and Williams' squad followed after. It's a long way to the bridge and the Captain wanted those guns disabled yesterday. No bug or PMC was gonna get in their way.

~Line Break~

Lieutenant Lisa Reid grit her teeth as she kept firing Raider 6-5's rotary cannon at the seemingly endless number of PMCs in the catwalks.

"Jesus. God. Shit. Fuck. How many of these bastards are there!?"

It was really fortunate that their bullets can't pierce through the cockpit, otherwise, Reid would be riddled with them by now. Looking over her shoulder, she called for her Crew Chief.

"Cortez, how are our Marines down there?"

"They said they wanna get off this death trap already but the Captain looks like he's about to pop a vein."

"Goddamnit. What the hell is taking Winter so long?" Reid muttered as she fired at another group of PMCs trying to shoot her cockpit. Pft. Amateurs. When will they ever learn? Oh, that's right. Never! Reid slowly smiled as she mowed down the poor bastards with the dropship's nose-mounted gun. Watching them get torn to little pieces after shooting up HER ship was so satisfying that she was so close to laughing like a maniac. If only Winter were here to see this.

~Line Break~

"Uh. Anybody know how to use a Power Loader?" O'Neal asked as the group stared at the Power Loader in the room. They were locked in a large room by a Wey-Yu grunt but at least Williams managed to shoot the bastard right between the eyes with her Service Pistol before the door fully closed.

"I loaded ordnance during basic." Winter replied before climbing up the Power Loader and strapped himself in. Once he was settled, he moved towards the large door on the other side of the room. Williams puffed a smoke from her cigarette as she watched the other Corporal get to work. Shepard walked over to her and said "Mind if I have a drag?"

Williams nodded before handing the cigarette to the redhead. The two stayed silent as they watched Winter lift the door and left the Power Loader to hold it up. The Marines moved in inside and William's squad were met with a sight that was totally foreign to them but all too familiar with Rhino 2-1.

"Holy shit. What the hell is that?"

"It's some kind of resin, ma'am." Private Richard Jenkins replied as he ran two fingers on the webbing. Shepard walked over to one of the pods and, to her horror, saw a Marine, judging by the guy's clothes and tags, had one of the spider things attached to his face. She looked to the side of the pod and saw the Wey-Yu insignia printed on the side.

Winter took out his Combat Pistol and proceeded to destroy the eggs that littered the area. O'Neal and the rest of the Marines joined him as well while Williams picked up a datapad on the ground. The Marine scrolled through it and grimaced at what she saw.

"They've been doing this since the Sulaco returned to LV-426. Hell, they even got a name for these things. Facehuggers." Ashley looked at the Marine in stasis "Well, they're not wrong."

Ashley then handed the datapad to Shepard and the redhead scrolled through it as well.

"They call the bugs, Xenomorphs... What the dick! They've got these poor bastards cryoed for 'further studies'. This is fucked up."

Winter was about to suggest they get a move on when his tracker pinged "I got movement!"

The Marines huddled together and trained their weapons on the walls, ceiling and floor. Winter held his tracker up and narrowed his eyes when the hostile reading was popping up in a different location every second. It moved faster than the Xenos they've encountered. Everyone kept a cautious eye on their surroundings, fingers on the triggers.

Jenkins heard something on his right and turned to face it. Time slowed as a Facehugger jumped out from the shadows and sailed through the air before wrapping it's tail around the Private's neck. Before it could fully wrap it's finger-like appendages around Jenkins' face, Ashley dropped her weapon and grabbed the Facehugger. She pulled with all her might but the thing's tail won't loosen. Shepard joined her and grabbed it by the tail while the rest covered them.

"Let him go, you little shit!" Ashley yelled as Jenkins fell to his knees. His grip around the Facehugger's tail started to loosen as his consciousness began to leave him.

"Don't you dare die on me, Jenkins! I swear if you die here, I will bring you back to life just so I can force you to do latrine duty for the rest of your life!"

Shepard grunted as she gave one final pull and the Facehugger finally let Jenkins go. The redhead threw it away and the little bastard landed on it's back. Before it could recover, Winter shot it with his pistol.

Ashley quickly checked Jenkins over for vitals and sighed in relief when the Private was still breathing, just unconscious. The Corporal chuckled before slapping the Private hard across the face.

Jenkins shot up with a scream before aiming a nonexistent gun at Ashley "Corporal Williams? W-What happened?"

"You almost had one of them Facehumpers deepthroat you and turn you into a Xeno baby mama." Shepard deadpanned before taking a drag from a newly lit cigarette. Jenkins just gave her a confused look before feeling something sticky on his face and brought a hand to his cheek.

"Uh, what the hell is this stuff?"

"Pft. Apparently, your baby daddy's love juice, kid." Ashley joked before grabbing the Marine on the arm and pulling him up to his feet. She grabbed his fallen Pulse Rifle and handed it back to him "Come on, we've wasted enough time as it is. Let's go."

"Yes, ma'am."

The Marines finally left the room only to run into more eggs. Surprisingly, Jenkins was the first one to act. He fired his Pulse Rifle and destroyed all the eggs in the room before throwing a grenade on the room next to it which also had eggs in them. Guess being nearly raped by a spider thing gets to you.

~Line Break~

Private James Vega sighed in relief when the PMCs seemed to fallback to wherever the hell they came from. He looked at the counter on his HUD and saw he still had 214 rounds left on the Smartgun. He lowered his weapon then radioed the Captain "Sir, looks like they broke off for a bit. Orders?"

'I just got word that Rhino 2-1 and William's squad are heading for the bridge now. I'm sending down another squad to secure a perimeter. Get your gorilla ass back here and help set up these Sentry Guns. I have a feeling those Wey-Yu bastards don't give up so easily.'

"Understood, sir."

Vega waited for the three Marines to disembark and set up a perimeter. Once they did, the muscular Marine returned to the dropship and helped the Captain bring down the Sentry Guns. Cruz opened his mouth to say something when Winter radioed him. James didn't stay to listen in and dropped off to set up the Sentry Guns outside.

Meanwhile, Cruz grimaced but still felt relief that Clarison managed to link up with 2-1.

"Alright, kid. Listen up. Clarison, you're with 2-1 now. Williams, you're squad is now redesignated as Rhino 2-3. Bishop, take it from here."

'Understood, Captain.' The Synthetic replied through the comms 'Winter, move through engineering and head for the service rail, over.'

'Solid copy, Bishop. Heading to engineering. Will update on status as soon as it happens. 2-1, out.'

Outside, Vega finished setting up one of the turrets facing the door to the dropship's left. The other was being set up by another Marine next to him. Vega looked down at the Sentry Gun and radioed the Captain "Captain, Sentry Guns are good to go."

'Affirmative, Vega. Bishop, arm them.'

A few moments later, the UA 571-C Automated Sentry Gun's ammo counters came to life, showing 500 rounds each. Grabbing a small box, Vega threw it a few feet in front of the Sentry Guns "Fire in the hole!"

The box sailed through the air and was about to land six feet from the guns. Before it could, the box was suddenly pelted by 10x28 mm rounds until there was barely anything of the box was left. Vega smiled as he saw the damage the UA 5731-C's can do. God, he loved the Corps.

Meanwhile, Captain Jeremy Cruz observed the camera feeds of the newly designated Rhino 2-3 from the M577 APC inside Reid's dropship. He already had a third squad securing the area while a fourth squad secured Cargo Bay One's control room. The Captain moved to stand from his chair when he heard an explosion.

"Bishop, what the hell was that!?"

"Weyland-Yutani forces have broken through Cargo Bay One's control room."

"Son of a- "

Another tremor nearly threw him off his feet and Cruz steadied himself before contacting the other Marine Squads.

"Sephora Actual to Rhino 2-5, what's your status?"

'We got hostiles in the control room, sir! They're trying to open up the Cargo Bay! Gray, I want suppressing fire on that door now!"

'Captain, this is Vega. The bastards are back!'

"Goddamnit."

Cruz grabbed the Pulse Rifle next to him and made his way out of the APC before contacting Reid.

"Lieutenant, lower the ramp."

'Sir?'

"I don't like repeating myself, Reid."

'Understood.'

The dropship's ramp lowered along with the APC and the Captain saw Vega shooting at the Wey-Yu PMCs with a Smartgun while the Sentry Guns and Rhino 2-4 covered his flank. He could hear gunshots coming from the control room as well. Cocking the pump of the Pulse Rifle's grenade launcher, Cruz aimed at the open door that the PMCs were coming from and pulled the trigger.

~Line Break~

'2-1. 2-3. Have you made it to the service rail yet?'

"Almost there, Bishop."

Winter lowered his hand from his earpiece and proceeded to cut open the sealed door. Once they got to the other side, they were greeted with the sight of dead Marines. All shot up by the looks of it.

"Grab their tags and ammo." The Corporal ordered neutrally "We'll make these bastards pay for what they've done."

"You got that right." Shepard muttered as she knelt down and grabbed some Pulse Rifle ammo from one of the bodies.

The rest of the Marines did the same before the group proceeded to the Service Rail. They stopped and looked outside the large viewport to see the Sephora trading fire with the Sulaco while Cheyenne Dropships evacuated the former.

'This is Sephora Actual. Scramble anything you can to get our men out of there.' The Captain's voice sounded through the comms 'Sephora, abandon ship.'

As soon as they heard the Captain say it, the gathered Marines cursed but quickly ran to cover as Wey-Yu PMCs began firing at them. They took cover behind forklifts, containers, etc., before shooting back at the PMCs.

'Repeat. Abandon ship, all personnel on the USS Sephora. Captain's radio call is now Sulaco Actual, over.'

"Sulaco Actual, it's Winter. We're on the service rail en route to the bridge. What's your situation on Cargo One?"

Winter fired a grenade at a PMC and watched as the round struck him in the chest and exploded, sending bits and pieces of the man all over the place. The Marine then fired his weapon at the PMCs on the far side of the service rail before reloading as the bullet counter hit zero.

'Winter, we're still sustaining sporadic fire but- ' He heard an explosion from the comms 'We're dealing with it. Bishop says the Sephora can't take much more of this before the reactor fractures and goes critical. Our grunts are counting on you.'

"Gee. Thanks, sir. No pressure." Shepard sarcastically replied before emptying her mag on a PMC's chest.

Meanwhile, Williams stood in front of a door on the side which opened to reveal a group of lightly armored PMCs. The Corporal smirked before pulling the trigger of her M240.

"Burn baby!"

The PMCs screamed and Williams stepped back as their flame covered forms staggered out of the room before falling to the floor dead. The Corporal suddenly found herself tackled to the ground and her flamethrower snatched from her hands. The PMC on top of her then began punching Williams across the face again and again.

Jenkins saw this and dropped his rifle before tackling the PMC off of her. The Private was grabbed by the head and the PMC slammed his own head against Jenkins' own, stunning the Marine. He moved to punch the Marine but Williams kicked him in the knee and forced the man to kneel. The Corporal then grabbed the PMC by th shoulder and pulled him to the ground and on the edge of the small set of steps before bringing her foot down on the man's head.

Williams heard the sickening crack and knew the PMC was dead before helping Jenkins up his feet. She retrieved her flamethrower but switched to her Combat Pistol and dove behind cover before shooting at the rest of the PMCs.

Meanwhile, Shepard fired her Pulse Rifle at the PMCs before Campbell, the newly designated Rhino 2-3's Smartgunner, fell back as a bullet tore through his throat. Shepard knelt down and checked in Campbell but cursed when the Smartgunner stilled.

The redhead quickly removed the Smartgunner's tags and placed it in her pocket. She then removed the articulator arm and attached it to her own armor before picking up the discarded Smartgun. Shepard lowered the eyepiece over her eye and smirked as she charged the weapon.

"Oh yeah."

Shepard laughed as she moved out of cver and began firing the Smartgun at the PMCs. The Marines slowly pushed the Weyland-Yutani forces back but the door on the other end of the service rail raised up to reveal another squad of PMCs with their own Smartgunner who was heavily-armored than the others. Seeing this, Shepard concentrated on the Wey-Yu Smartgunner's knee which she shot off.

Beside Shepard, Bella cooked a grenade and threw it at the downed Smartgunner.

"Suck it!"

The explosion engulfed the PMC while those close to it managed to jump out of the way but they were quickly gunned down by the Marines.

With the service rail cleared, the group moved to enter Engineering but one of the Sephora's shot struck the area close to them and caused a violent tremor that sent them on their knees.

"Jesus Christ, the Sephora's killing us!" Rhino 2-3's second Rifleman, Lasco, yelled out as Jenkins pulled him up to his feet.

Meanwhile, Rhino 2-1 entered through the door that lead to Engineering. The more time they wasted down there, the more damage the Sephora was taking and it won't be long until her reactor goes critical.

"They're trying to disable the guns." O'Neal said.

"Well they're doing a pretty shitty job at it." Shepard muttered as she discarded the articulator arm and empty Smartgun "Who the hell taught them how to shoot?"

"Just book it, grunts!" Winter yelled before opening the door and blasting the PMC with his back turned to him away with his shotgun. Damn thing packed one helluva punch.

The two teams split up with 2-1 taking the left flank and 2-3 taking the right. One Wey-Yu grunt tackled Winter to the ground and started punching him but the Corporal raised his forearms to block the blows. The PMC was suddenly kicked off of him before having his head blown off.

Jane grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him up to his feet before throwing him back his shotgun. The two of them quickly took cover behind a wall as some PMCs began firing at them.

"Why do we always keep get fucking jumped in this place?"

"Beats me." Jane replied.

A PMC entered the area they were in but Winter was already aiming the shotgun to where he suspected the man's head would be. As soon as the man's head lined up with his sights, Winter pulled the trigger and blew apart the PMC's head.

A second PMC entered the room they were in and Winter shot him in the leg, forcing the man to fall on his front on the ground before the Corporal shot him in the head and splattered his brains all over the floor before reloading the shotgun. Winter then switched to his Pulse Rifle and exited the room with Shepard matching his pace beside him.

The Marines proceeded to clear out Engineering while the PMCs pulled back. O'Neal quickly called in the elevator before the lift's doors opened and the Marines ran inside.

~Line Break~

After a lengthy fight in the Fusion Control room, the six Marines were once more inside an elevator but this time, it was heading for the bridge.

"Alright, Marines." Winter began "Ammo count. I got five more mags for this and sixteen more shells for the shotgun."

"Four here." Shepard replied.

"Same." Bella answered.

"Last mag." O'Neal said and Winter handed one of his mags to the Private before looking at Williams and Jenkins.

"2-3?"

"I'm good on ammo." Williams answered while Jenkins checked the mags for the M39 SMG he picked up from one of the dead PMCs.

"Me too."

"We'll have to make do." Winter nodded muttered before turning to face the lift's doors.

"You know the bridge is gonna be heavily defended, right?" Shepard said as she secured her cap "They're not gonna give it up so easily."

"Not like we have a choice." Winter replied as he looked at the redhead "We need to shut those guns before they kill anymore of our dropships and do anymore damage to the Sephora."

The elevator 'dinged' and the doors opened. The Marines quickly opened fire as they saw a group of PMCs behind the desk. One of the PMCs threw a grenade at them and Shepard picked it up before throwing it back at the Wey-Yu grunt. The grenade exploded and took out the PMCs behind the desk before the Marines exited the elevator.

The group made their way over to a door that says 'Central Command'. Before Winter opened it, he stopped himself and heard voices from the other side of the door. The Corporal took out a grenade and primed it before opening the door and throwing it inside. Winter quickly shut the door when the PMCs began firing at him. Seconds later, they heard an explosion set off and the Marines opened the door before going inside.

The bodies of a few PMCs lay dead on the floor but two were still alive with one of them sitting against the wall and firing a Pulse Rifle. They were quickly gunned down by the Marines before going down the set of stairs and entering through the door on the left.

As soon as Lasco step foot on the corridor, he was immediately torn apart by a Sentry Gun.

"Lasco!"

Jenkins moved to help the Marine but was pulled back by Williams and Shepard.

"Forget it. He's dead!"

"Get around behind them and shut them down!" Winter ordered.

Bella and O'Neal nodded before taking the corridor to the right to flank around with Shepard following after them. Williams and Jenkins stayed with Winter as a group of PMCs from the end of the corridor started shooting them and the trio fired back.

Meanwhile, Shepard took point as they ran to flank the Sentry Gun. They cut through the server room and took out a number of Wey-Yu PMCs on the way. She ran down the corridor until she found the Sentry Gun guarding the corridor before making her way over to it and pulled out her hacking tool before reprogramming the Sentry Gun.

"Winter, gun's on our side now." She said through the comms.

"Understood."

Winter, Williams and Jenkins exited the Central Command room and regrouped with the rest of the team before making their way to the Bridge. They then heard the Sentry Gun go off as PMCs turned the corner only to be torn apart by the turret.

"Alright. The gun's gonna cover our flank for now but Jenkins I want you to cover our six." Winter ordered.

"Yes sir."

They made it to the Bridge only to be met by dozens of PMCs and another Sentry Gun. The Marines quickly took cover behind the consoles and returned fire as best as they could without getting targeted by the Sentry Gun.

"Ah shit!"

"Somebody take that thing out!" Winter ordered before risking a peek only to duck back down as the Sentry Gun zeroed in on him "Goddamnit!"

"Fire in the hole!"

Winter looked over at Jenkins to see the Private had primed a grenade and threw it at the Sentry Gun. Unfortunately, the grenade hit the turret and bounced off a few feet away before exploding. Then he heard the unmistakable sound of a Smartgun firing and risked another peek to see a Wey-Yu Smartgunner walking down the stairs in the middle of the room.

'This just gets better and better, doesn't it?' He thought bitterly before pumping the Pulse Rifle's grenade launcher.

"God help me." He muttered.

Shepard heard this and looked at the Corporal who was loading grenade shells into the launcher.

"Winter?"

He didn't give her an answer before standing up and firing a grenade at the Smartgunner. He pumped the grenade launcher and fired another one at the Sentry Gun this time.

The second grenade disabled the Sentry Gin as well as taking out two PMCs besude the turret. The first grenade, however, only managed to stagger the heavily-armored PMC who set his sights on Winter and opened fire. The Corporal quickly ducked back down to cover before putting his remaining grenades into the grenade launcher while Shepard looked at him with wide eyes.

"You're fucking crazy, you know that."

With the man's attention centered on Winter, the rest of the Marines opened fire on the man. It was a blessing that the rounds used by the Pulse Rifle was designed for using against armored units and the group quickly took down fhe Smartgunner before opening fire on the remaining PMCs.

While the rest cleaned up the PMCs, Winter ran towards the main console and started trying to shut down the Sulaco's weapons system. Once he was done, the Corporal contacted the Captain.

"Sulaco Actual, this is Winter. Weapons system is down. Repeat. Weapons system is down."

Winter took off his helmet and placed it down on top of the console before running a hand through his hair.

'You're too late, son.'

"What!?"

The Marine looked out the viewport to see that the Sulaco and Sephora had stopped firing but the latter had taken major damage and that areas of the ship were burning. He'd imagine the Sulaco looked the same. Battered and burning.

"Sir, what the hell are you talking about? We're here and we stopped the guns."

The comms came back to life but instead of hearing the Captain's voice, it was that of the Sephora's Lead Engineer.

'Sulaco Actual, mayday, mayday! The reactor is critical!'

"Oh God."

Winter looked over his shoulder to see that the others had joined him and were now staring at the Sephora through the viewport.

'There's nothing- I'm sorry, sir. We couldn't- '

Without warning, the Sephora's reactor exploded and the ship itself was destroyed before their very eyes. Winter punched the monitor in anger, cracking the glass.

"FUCK!"

Breathing heavily, Winter looked back at the Sephora before noticing that it's remains were heading right towards the Sulaco.

'This is Sulaco Actual, all hands brace for impact!'

"Jesus Christ."

The remains of the Sephora collided with the Sulaco and the entire ship violently shook. The Marines fell to the ground while some of them tried to steady themselves by holding onto whatever they can hold on to. The last thing they saw was another piece of the Sephora's wreck sailing straight into the bridge before everything went black.

* * *

**_A/N: I have no explanation other than updates to stories are sporadic. _**


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